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Best workflow for managing skins with 8 directions and many item variations?

jackni

Hello,

I am creating a character in Spine that has 8-directional animations, and I will be using this in Unity.

My character has 5 swappable body parts (e.g., helmet, torso, gloves, boots, pants).

For each of these 5 parts, I have 20 different item variations (e.g., 20 different helmets, 20 different torsos, etc.). And each of these variations needs attachments for all 8 directions.

This results in a huge number of attachments. For the torso slot alone, I have 20 variations * 8 directions = 160 attachments. Across all 5 body parts, this is (20 variations) * (8 directions) * (5 parts) = 800 total attachments.

Managing this in the Spine editor is becoming very chaotic. I am wondering what the best-practice workflow is for this situation. I have two main ideas:

Option 1: Should I create a separate skin for each individual component? (e.g., a skin named "Helmet_1", another skin named "Armor_1", then "Helmet_2", "Armor_2", etc.). Each of these skins would contain the 8 directional attachments for that single component.

Option 2: Or, is it better to put all 800 attachments into one single, giant skin (like the default skin) and then manage everything in Unity by code (e.g., just calling the correct attachment names at runtime)?

My goal is to be able to mix and match items in Unity (for example, using "Helmet_5" with "Armor_10"). Which approach is better for organization in the Spine editor and for performance in Unity? Or is there a different, better workflow I am missing?

Thank you for your advice!

Spinebot

Given your scenario with 8 directions and numerous item variations, I'd recommend Option 1 with a programmatic approach in Unity. Here's the best workflow for your situation:

Recommended Approach: Individual Skins Per Item + Runtime Combination

Create a separate skin for each individual equipment piece (e.g., helmet_1, helmet_2, armor_1, armor_2, etc.). Each skin contains all 8 directional attachments for that specific item.

Why this approach works best:

Organization in Spine: Much easier to manage. Use folders to organize your skins by category (helmets, torsos, gloves, boots, pants). This keeps everything structured and manageable rather than having 800 attachments in a single view.
Runtime Flexibility: In Unity, you can programmatically combine multiple skins to create any equipment combination. For example, combine helmet_5 + armor_10 + gloves_3 + boots_7 + pants_2 into a single combined skin.
Performance: Only the active skin elements are calculated at runtime regardless of how many total skins exist in your project. Combining skins programmatically has minimal overhead.
Future Scalability: Adding new items is straightforward - just add a new skin without touching existing ones.

Implementation in Unity:

Use the Spine Unity skin combination API to mix and match at runtime:

var skeletonAnimation = GetComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
var skeleton = skeletonAnimation.Skeleton;
var skeletonData = skeleton.Data;

// Create a new combined skin
var combinedSkin = new Skin("combined-skin");

// Add each equipment piece
combinedSkin.AddSkin(skeletonData.FindSkin("helmet_5"));
combinedSkin.AddSkin(skeletonData.FindSkin("armor_10"));
combinedSkin.AddSkin(skeletonData.FindSkin("gloves_3"));
combinedSkin.AddSkin(skeletonData.FindSkin("boots_7"));
combinedSkin.AddSkin(skeletonData.FindSkin("pants_2"));

// Apply the combined skin
skeleton.SetSkin(combinedSkin);
skeleton.SetSlotsToSetupPose();

For more details, check out:

Additional Tip:

Consider using naming conventions for your attachments within each skin. For example, if your 8 directions are named consistently (like north, northeast, east, etc.), you can easily swap between them programmatically based on the character's facing direction.

This workflow gives you the best balance of organization, maintainability, and runtime performance for your complex multi-directional equipment system.

jackni

"I have a follow-up question about Option 1:"

"If every different component is placed in its own separate skin (like a Helmet_1 skin and an Armor_1 skin), how can I create the animations? When I'm in Animate mode, it seems I can only select one skin at a time. This means I wouldn't be able to see a complete character (e.g., Helmet_1 + Armor_1 combined) while I am animating. How do I solve this?"